MagCloud allows you to publish your own magazine using any layout program (InDesign, QuarkXpress, Photoshop, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, Apple Pages and Scribus—see specs and download templates here). When the design is completed, you must export to Acrobat pdf format (read their “how to publish” specs here.) You upload your pdf to MagCloud, fill out the description, and order a proof, which they print, bind and mail to you in two weeks or less. You review the proof, make changes (if necessary) and upload a new pdf file.

When you are happy with the final proof, you mark the issue as “published” and set the price. MagCloud charges 20 cents per page and the publisher (you) specifies any markup above that. With the issue “published,” visitors can buy it on the MacCloud website using a credit card or their PayPal account. Orders can be shipped to the U.S., United Kingdom and Canada. More countries will be added in the future. When someone orders your magazine, MagCloud prints, binds and mails the issue to your buyer. You can also send an order to a group of people using their “Ship to Group” capability. Publishers collect royalties via PayPal.

When publishing any magazine, your publication must be set up in “signatures” of four pages. This means your publication can be 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28 pages, and so on. The total number of pages in the file must be evenly divisible by four. A MagCloud magazine can be as cheap as .80 cents per issue (4 pages—perfect for a marketing brochure!), all the way up to MagCloud’s maximum of 100 pages at ($20.00 per issue), plus shipping. You determine whether you want a markup above the cost of printing to be added for your audience/buyers.

From the MagCloud website: This service is ideal for publishers of small run magazines—special interest groups, clubs, schools and niche magazines—looking to minimize their setup, operational and print costs, and increase their advertising revenue. MagCloud also offers a great opportunity for electronic magazines and popular blog and website owners who are looking to provide their readers the same great content but in a portable and slick printed magazine style format.

Check out the “recently featured magazines” here, or use the search feature on MagCloud to look for magazines on topics that interest you. Some publications are personal efforts (such as family albums, cookbooks, calendars, design and photography portfolios, etc.), while others are published by businesses and associations. Even actor Ashton Kutcher has jumped on the MagCloud bandwagon—in collaboration with GQ Magazine, HP, and The Gentlemen’s Fund, Kutcher published a photo essay to raise awareness of the flood that devastated Cedar Rapids, Iowa in the summer of 2008. All proceeds from the sale of the magazine go to support the rebuilding of Cedar Rapids. Learn more about the publication and see an online preview here.

Love dogs? Love Shirl Magazine, a 56-page, ad-free magazine published by Lee Spillennar, is whimsically designed and highlights living, working and playing with your dog.

Check out Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG Quarterly, published by Spot On Media LLC, with stories of survivors, athletes, advocates and articles on healthy living, nutrition and cutting-edge medical advances.

Publish a magazine showcasing your photography! James Worrell has done just that with Food for Thinking. Drinking. Eating. and Make-Up. Give family members their 15 minutes of fame with a family reunion magazine like publisher Andrea Bagley has done with Roeber Family Reunion. Having trouble getting things done? Check out publisher Michael Sliwinski’s Productive Magazine. Frog lover? Check out Leaf Litter, published by Tree Walkers International, with beautiful photographs and articles related to amphibian conservation, ecology and natural history. Are you a Foodie? Check out Off the Vine Magazine, published by Jennifer Anne Shorr. This 44-page publication covers new flavors, fine dining, travel, wine review, cooking and beautiful photography from the west coast.

Publish your own calendar! Take a look at Brian Jones’ 2010 Pacific Northwest Nature Photography calendar. The publication runs 28 pages, so the cost is approximately $5.60, plus shipping. The list price is $10, which gives him just over $4.00 profit (won’t make him rich, but it’s something if he generates enough interest for volume purchases!). If making money isn’t your priority—say, you just want to publish your family reunion magazine and have it available to your family to purchase directly, you can list the price for the actual cost. The best part: you can use your calendar for marketing purposes. There is no minimum order, so order only what you need—no excess inventory in your studio. I really love this concept and have all sorts of ideas spinning in my head right now!

In between design jobs and the massive spring cleaning I’ve undertaken, I’m working on a “how to photograph your garden” magazine with photographs and how-to articles. I hope to have the magazine available for purchase by early summer. If the venture fares well, I might make it a regular series on different topics (how to photograph portraits, weddings, special events, landscapes, etc.).

I’m now inspired to put together a portfolio magazine with my garden photographs, accompanied by my own poetry and garden essays as well as some of my favorite works from other poets. I’m letting each image I pull from my archives inspire the design and this is one of the layouts that is completed. This two-page spread features a lacecap hydrangea I photographed at the Atlantic Botanic Garden. The poem is by one of my favorite writers, Rainer Marie Wilke, and has been translated by Guntram Deischel.

Blue Hydrangea

Just like the last green in a colour pot
So are these leaves, withered and wrecked
Behind the flower umbels, which reflect
A hue of blue only, more they do not.

Reflections are tear-stained, inaccurate,
As if they were about to cease,
And like old blue notepaper sheets
They wear some yellow, grey and violet,

Washed-out like on a children’s apron,
Outworn and now no more in use:
We contemplate a small life’s short duration.

But suddenly some new blue seemingly is seen
In just one umbel, and we muse
Over a moving blue delighting in the green